Duke lacrosse: Sex, drugs and Court TV

At this point we can only say one thing about the Duke lacrosse team sex scandal — it isn’t going away.

Abrams Report

It didn’t take long for these photos from the party to become public.

The sordid details and back and forth accusations of the stripper who says she was beaten and raped at a lacrosse team party on March 13, are too perfect for the new court TV culture. Back in 1995, when the O.J. Simpson trial proved that viewers were fascinated by rehashing the details of a real life, high profile criminal case, a cluster of cable TV shows was spawned — like “The Abrams Report” “Greta Van Susteren” or “Nancy Grace.” All were devoted to dissecting and second-guessing the developments in high profile cases.

The problem is, not all the cases are as sexy as O.J.’s. Congressional campaign finance violations or the leak of classified documents just aren’t as fascinating. But this case has it all.

In a long, blowout cover story out this week (the May 1 issue), Newsweek calls it “Sex, Lies & Duke.” The New York Times has covered developments as if the alleged rape and assault happened in Manhattan. And court TV is all Duke, all the time.

“The Abrams Report” has aired some of the photos taken by the lacrosse players at the party, although those are certain to be key evidence in any trial. And Grace has followed in the grand tradition of TV pundits by appearing to have already made up her mind. When a guest last week suggested that it was important to remember that the Duke players might be innocent, Grace cut him off disgustedly and went to someone else.

On the other end of the bad taste spectrum, Newsweek says radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh told his national audience, “the lacrosse team supposedly, you know, raped some, uh, hos.” Limbaugh later said he was sorry for the “terrible slip of the tongue.”

The real advantage this case has for a hungry news cycle is that new evidence keeps popping up. Newsweek has a potential bombshell in its story, suggesting that the accuser may have been slipped a date rape drug in a drink she was handed when she arrived.

Kim Roberts, who is now known as the “second dancer” in most accounts, has now given interviews saying that the accuser, who she did not know before the party, was “clearly sober” when she arrived. Roberts says the players offered the two of them mixed drinks and Roberts declined hers. But the other woman sipped hers and then, when she knocked it over, drank some of Roberts’.

Soon afterwards, Roberts says, the accuser was stumbling and appeared “glassy-eyed.” By the time they left, after just an hour at the party, the dancer was so out of it that she was barely responsive. At least one photo appears to show her lying on her side on the outside porch, bleeding from cuts and scrapes.

AP

The second dancer, Kim Roberts now thinks the woman may have been drugged

Newsweek says Durham DA Mike Nifong hinted when the case first broke that a date rape drug might have been involved. But then Nifong gave lots of interviews back in those days and not all of them were a good idea. He clearly got ahead of himself and is now looking like a political opportunist. (A primary election for the DA job is up on May 2.)

The case against one of the indicted players, Reade Seligmann, appears to be falling apart. Phone logs, taxi records, and bank statements seem to indicate that it would have been almost impossible for him to have participated.

Now that Nifong has opened the door with pre-trial accusations, defense attorneys are in full smear mode, now demanding records of the accuser’s mental and drug history. More will follow.

But something happened on that night in the off-campus house and, one way or another, it wasn’t good. This didn’t pop up out of nowhere and statements from so many people — the neighbors who claim they heard racial epithets, the ugly email from one of the players saying he was going to ”skin the bitches,” and the nurse at the emergency room who says it appeared the woman had been sexually assaulted — don’t come out of thin air.

There is much more to come. There is even more DNA evidence, reportedly from under the fingernails of the dancer. But this time Nifong is keeping quiet about what it might show or whether or not he has any evidence of the presence of a date rape drug in the woman’s system. (Extensive blood tests were taken.)

All we can say for certain is that this case isn’t going anywhere. It will stay at the top of the headlines and the lead topic on TV news for the foreseeable future. It has it all: sex, race, wealth, entitlement, and powerful opinions. We don’t need a verdict. We’ve got a topic and we’re going to run with it.